He said: "We should all remember the two young lives brutally taken by Saunders in the most cowardly of murders.

"Zoe Morgan and Lee Simmons were a young couple who had embarked on a new relationship that friends and family say brought them both immense happiness. They were both talented, caring and valuable members of the community and much loved by all who knew them; may they rest in peace.

"Andrew Saunders has rightly been sentenced today to a lengthy term of imprisonment for his brutal and callous murders.

"He is a cold calculating killer who planned this crime over a number of weeks.

"He brutally killed those two wonderful young people out of an immature jealousy that cannot be explained or understood by any right thinking person. He has offered no mitigation and displayed no remorse. He is a truly despicable man.

"He deserves to spend the majority of his life in prison where he will hopefully have time to reflect on the gravity of his offences."

Double murderer Andrew Saunders (Image: PA)

The families also issued statements, with Lee's family thanking Saunders' family for helping "to secure his speedy arrest and conviction."

The statement said: "No sentence or punishment will ever compensate for the loss of Lee’s life.

"The whole family has been left devastated by this horrific and unprovoked crime; we have been deeply shocked by the brutality of it. It has not only had a massive impact upon ours and Zoe’s family but we believe also Andrew Saunders’ family.

"We will never be able to forgive him for selfishly taking Lee away from us but we would like to thank his family for fully co-operating with the Police in helping to secure his speedy arrest and conviction."

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Zoe's family said: "As a family words will never be able to express how we feel inside. We are all totally heartbroken and will miss our beautiful intelligent girl for the rest of our lives. We have had a life sentence put on us by this horrible individual.

"Zoe and her partner Lee could have had a bright and happy future together and will miss out on so much. What right did Andrew Saunders have to take this away from us?

"Our lives have changed forever and things will never be the same again."

Prosecutor Philip Bennetts QC had described the defendant as “very controlling”.

The court heard he sent a message to 21-year-old Ms Morgan in the weeks before the attack accusing her of cheating and telling her: “I will kill whoever it is.”